Kind of Qualitative

Research,
Characteristics,
Uses, Strengths and
Weaknesses
JONATHAN L. ROQUE, PHD
Your best quote that reflects your
approach… “It’s one small step for
man, one giant leap for mankind.”

- NEIL ARMSTRONG
What is Qualitative Research?
Cresswell (1994) “an inquiry process of understanding social or human problem based on building a
complex holistic picture formed with words, reporting detailed views of informants and conducted in a
natural setting.”

Locke, Spirduso, and Silverman (1987) emphasize that the intent of qualitative research is “to
inderstand a particular social situation, event , role , group or interaction.

Franenkel and Wallen (1990) stress that researchers are interested in understanding how things occur.
Qualitative Research is ….
◦ Is essentially a descriptive analysis and folloews the inductive process of reasoning, that is , from specific
situations like a student’s losing interest or motivation to study, to arriving at a generalization of what has
caused such behavior, based on observations, interviews, or self – disclosures in written forms like school
compositions, or more popularly, I “social Network posts, blogs or videos.

◦ Qualitative research is … interpretive, follows a non – linear research path and speaks a language of “cases and
contexts.”

◦ Quantitative research follows a linear research path, speaks a language of “variables and hyphothesis”, and
emphasized measuring variables and testing hypothesis that are linked to general causal explanation (neuman,
2007)
Kinds of Qualitative Research
1. Participant Observation

2. Observation

3. in – Depth Interviewing

4. Focus Group Interviewing

5. Content Analysis

6. Narratology

7. Films, Videos and Photographs